How Much I Earn From YouTube with 1000 Followers?

After almost 2 years of hard work and around 100 videos, I recently got monetized on YouTube. Before I tell you how much I earn from YouTube with around 1500 subscribers, I want to ask you something.

“What do you think of YouTube as a profession? Do you think schools will have content creation as a subject in the future? ”

Today, if you ask the kids who they want to become when they grow up, the answer is not firefighters, doctors, or pilots. Most of them want to be YouTubers. And I can clearly understand where that comes from. There is a lot of money and fame involved. I believe people should be able to do whatever they are passionate about and still make a living, and YouTube is one way to do that. But there are around 60 million YouTube creators, then there is only one Mr. Beast and only one MKBHD.

Only 6% of YouTube channels get monetized, and a mere 1% reach the 100k subscriber mark on YouTube. So the question is, if you are someone who looks to YouTube as a career option, could it provide enough money to live a comfortable life?

And the truth is yes, but it's not easy. So, in this blog, I will explain the revenue model of YouTube, the different ways to make money from it other than AdSense, and finally how much I currently earn from YouTube. So let's get started.

I started my YouTube channel towards the end of 2021. I wish I had started earlier, but as the saying goes, better late than never. But truth be told, YouTube was not my first attempt at content creation. I had started a website called CybSecAcademy sometime in 2020 to educate people about cybersecurity, which is kinda related to my main job. But I didn't continue with it for long because it just felt like an extension of my day-to-day work. I was not enjoying it. So I wanted to try something new.

For me, the whole point of creating content is to communicate my thoughts and share my knowledge so that the other person can get some value out of it. And I realized that nothing could beat the effectiveness of a visual medium. Also, I had some interest and experience in video editing from my university days, and that led me to YouTube. But then, my biggest uncertainty was what topic to discuss in my channel. I didn't want it to be a daily vlog (I don't think my life is that interesting :D) I didn't want it to be in the entertainment niche either because I don't think there is any shortage of quality entertainment in the world.

So, I did a little exercise by writing down all those topics that interest me and what I am skilled at. And then, I took the 3 options out of it to find that sweet spot of interest and skill.

“Productivity Travel and Personal Finance”

I always try to be productive in everything I do and make it a part of life, but I wasn't sure I wanted to talk about it on my channel. Travel is an area that I am really interested in, but somehow, I didn't like the idea of carrying a camera with me wherever I go. I felt like it may take the fun out of something that I enjoy doing.

So, I finally decided to go with personal finance. I had gotten into the world of investing some years ago, and I so wish I had started earlier. I was also inspired by the FIRE movement and the concept of "4-Hour Workweek" by Tim Ferris where he talked about an alternative to the normal 9 - 5.

And the root of all this was efficiently managing one's finances. I strongly believe money can buy happiness. If used wisely, money can solve a lot of external problems that can hinder our happiness. So it’s a reasonable step to go ahead and make money. Making and managing money is the one important skill everyone should learn, but that being said, the current financial education in our schools is a joke.

So I wanted to share my experiences and knowledge on money-related topics. These are things that I wish somebody had taught me 10 years ago. So once I narrowed down my niche, I did some more exercises to identify my target audience, their problems, and what solutions I can offer. This helped me to be thoughtful about which videos to create instead of just randomly talking about a topic.

But then before I could start making videos, there was one big problem. I wasn't a videographer, I had never written a script in my life, I had never been in front of a camera before, and I didn’t have any experience in public speaking. I came into this about as inexperienced as anyone could be. So, I started learning everything I could about scripting, filmmaking, cameras, recording, and editing.

That added to another few months of delay, but it made sure that the channel had a minimum production quality right from the beginning. And all that hard work has taken me here. Getting monetized and earning money through AdSense.

Now, there are multiple ways to earn money through a YouTube channel, but the easiest one is AdSense. Once you reach 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 public watch hours, you can sign up for the YouTube partnership program. Companies show their ads on your videos on YouTube and pay YouTube for the screen time. YouTube takes a cut, and you get the rest.

There are two important terms to understand when talking about YouTube AdSense. First is CPM Cost Per Thousand Impressions, the amount advertisers pay YouTube per 1,000 views on your video, and RPM Revenue per 1000 impressions, or how much you get from 1,000 views on your video. A typical RPM could range from $2 - 10$ for every 1,000 views.

Mine currently stays at 5 euros or 6 dollars. Since I only got recently monetized, I believe that value will increase over time. Now the RPM number can vary depending on several factors, but the most important one is the Niche. Niche is what your channel is about. My YouTube channel is based on personal finance. So the ads that are displayed on it would mostly be from financial companies. And what do financial companies have the most? Money. So, the return from ad revenue would be one of the highest for channels in this niche.

Similarly, another hot niche is tech, and now you already know the reason why. However, an entertainment channel or vlogging channel even though it may get more views, may not earn as much in AdSense.

Now, let's have a look at how much I earn from Adsense in the personal finance niche, with around 1500 subscribers.

My channel got monetized in October, and in the first month, I earned around 10 euros. Then it increased to 26 euros in November, then to 38 euros in December, and now it stands at 53 euros. So in total, I made roughly 150 euros from ads, which is nothing to write about considering the amount of time, effort, and expenses it took to make those videos. However, in December, I didn't upload a single video and I still earned around 40 euros.

That's the beauty of YouTube and passive income. These videos are assets that can generate money even when I sleep. But then AdSense is just one way to make money from YouTube, but there are other ways too.

There are sponsorship and brand deals, where brands approach you to promote their products on your channel. The revenue can range from a few hundred to thousands of dollars, depending on the niche and the size of the channel. Unfortunately, no brands have approached me yet, but that may happen in due course. Also once you have a loyal following, you can sell courses, digital products, or merchandise like Mr. Beast does.

Now before I wind up, let's try to answer the most important question.

“Is it still worth it in 2024 to start a YouTube channel? ”

Absolutely! However, if you are doing it only for money, then you may be disappointed. What you have to understand is that behind all the fame and money, there is a lot of work that goes into doing this. As a YouTuber, you are working on multiple jobs simultaneously. You are the researcher, the scriptwriter, the cinematographer, the editor and you have to churn out videos week after week.

You've got to be able to make videos of things that other people are going to find interesting. But more than that you have to find it interesting because if you don't. you are going to hate doing YouTube. Because even though YouTube is a dream job, it's still a job. You need to be in love with the process of creating the content.

I love doing this. I love creating stuff, and I love sharing my thoughts. I love the feeling of being useful to another human being through the content I share. And that's what YouTube gives me, the freedom to create and hopefully do something good in society. Of course, I care about making money. It would actually be a bit weird if I were making videos on personal finance and didn't care about making money. But that's just one part of it.

There will be months and months where you just put in all the work without any reward. But if you can fall in love with the process of creating videos more than playing the subscriber status or the money game, YouTube is a way out, a way out of the normal race, a way to do things that we love and still make a living out of it.

So, start small, give it some time and I can guarantee you that your life will change for good.

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Disclaimer: The Content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. It is important to do your own analysis before making any investment.